Well… let the “Greed Monster” loose! Oh, woe is me… I am soooo downtrodden by the airlines.
These whiners are always quick to tell you how much they are overworked and and underpaid, as if somehow, more pay cancels out the “overworked” part.
As a retired pilot that did 23 years in the AF then another 20 or so in the airlines I am convinced that these folks could use a large dose of reality. They do NOT come even close to the workload that my generation faced in the air and yet they will whine about being worked too hard. They never have to show up 2.5 hours before departure to actually “plan” the flight, find their own weather, fill out numerous forms, preflight oil dripping equipment, sometimes even help the loading process, coax 18+ cylinders to get it together and run, do actual run-ups out at the oily spots near the end of the runway, try to convince themselves that the dime sized torque gauges vibrating like a misloaded washing machine on spin really are showing enough torque to continue, bounce along at less than smooth altitudes for hours because she will never get high enough to find smooth air, pray that the radar actually lasts the full trip for a change, hope that the triple beacon approach is actually “up” for a change at the destination, etc, etc, etc.
Sure pilots, like everyone else deserve fair compensation but come on. Today’s “crowd” has it easy compared to almost everyone else in the industry. The baggage handlers, counter staff, reservation people, fuelers, mechanics, et al, have it far worse. They work far harder 5 days every week (can you imagine?) for far less money and pretty much every one of them can make an error that could cause serious problems with the aircraft. Sure, the pilots are actually “driving” but with modern autopilot systems, far better climate control, noise reduction in the cabin, seats that are actually fairly comfortable, only 8 hour duty days, highly accurate navigation systems, and planes that will pretty much always land themselves… oh they have it sooo bad that the big paychecks are necessary to sooth that strain… really?
As you can guess… I am not in favor of their general attitudes. Oh, my experience… C-141A+B, B-747(Classic), CV-240/340(T-29/ C-131), DC-6 (C-118), ATR-42, NA-265(T-39), ATP and about 29K hours.
And, I am not interested in their whines about how much the Execs make either… everyone in most every company has that gripe as well. I will be in the mod to listen when they get concerned about cutting exec compensation and raising the pay of the rest of the ground staff.